MSNBC, The Place for ... Changemakers! Big Re-Brand as 'Obama Network'

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MSNBC, The Place for ... Changemakers! Big Re-Brand as 'Obama Network'
View Story On One Page Print This Story Share This Story By Felix Gillette
May 5, 2009 | 8:15 p.m

On a recent Thursday morning, John Kelly, an NBC executive who, among other jobs, oversees ad sales for MSNBC, sat in his office overlooking Rockefeller Plaza and fired up a presentation called “The Face Behind the Momentum.”

Sitting at a desk, beneath a framed drawing of Uncle Sam with an NBC peacock logo on his hat, Mr. Kelly tapped away at a laptop computer. On the other side of the room, a wall-mounted flat-screen television flickered to life.

The presentation began with a graphical story, rife with pie charts and upward-facing arrows, about MSNBC’s ratings growth since the 2006 midterm elections. The story progressed through the campaign primaries, shimmied through a Rachel Maddow victory dance, breezed over the excitement of election day and then lingered on MSNBC’s ratings in March and April of 2009.

“Here’s where we start getting into beating CNN in prime time,” said Mr. Kelly, gesturing at the screen. A series of brightly covered graphics highlighted MSNBC’s ratings. Various matrices showing Fox’s continued ratings dominance in cable news lurked in near invisibility at the periphery. “We have Fox up there, too,” said Mr. Kelly. “But they’re hidden.”

A longish article but very interesting. I don't watch MSNBC so I can't say if their target audience really is the hopey-changey crowd or not. It seems like a risky move to identify so closely with a politician.